Coinbase investigates if its employees have taken advantage of the launch of Bitcoin Cash

Coinbase, one of the largest platforms to buy, sell, transfer and store cryptocurrencies, has started offering Bitcoin Cash a few hours ago.

The announcement, however, has caused a significant drop in Bitcoin and an unexpected controversy: the suspicious increase in the price of Bitcoin Cash in the hours leading up to the official announcement. Therefore, they are investigating their employees.

It was known that the platform was going to include this coin – a fork of Bitcoin created in August – because it was communicated when it was launched. But the exact moment was unknown. This data was only in the hands of the company’s employees whose internal policy prohibits them from communicating non-public material information outside the company.

“It was explicitly forbidden to exchange Bitcoin Cash and reveal the plans”

For this reason, although at the moment there are no indications of any irregularity, Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, has confirmed through the publication of an article the opening of an internal investigation.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Given the price increase in the hours prior to the announcement, we will conduct an investigation on this matter. If we find evidence that an employee or contractor has violated our policies, directly or indirectly, I will not hesitate to dismiss them immediately and take appropriate legal action. Our goal is to make Coinbase the most reliable and easy-to-use digital currency exchange. We will only achieve this goal by making sure that all of us (the employees and contractors of Coinbase) abide by a high standard of conduct. [/perfectpullquote]

In fact, according to the executive, “all employees and contractors of Coinbase were explicitly prohibited from exchanging Bitcoin Cash and revealing our launch plans more than a month ago”. Something that was communicated several times through multiple channels, according to his story.

What was expected the release by users and also by the platform, one of the most popular and valued for its ease of use, has been rarefied by worrying suspicions and an undoubted increase in the price of Bitcoin Cash before and after its launch in the service.